Why People Enter and Embrace Violent Groups

Frontiers in Psychology

Nafees Hamid¹  Lucía López-Rodríguez²  Francois Alexi Martel³  William B. Swann³  Juana Chinchilla⁴  Mercedes Martínez⁴  Ángel Gómez⁵  Alexandra Vázquez⁵  Borja Paredes⁶  Mal Hettiarachchi⁷ 

[1] ARTIS International, St. Michaels, MD, United States;ARTIS International, St. Michaels, MD, United States;Department of Psychology, Faculty of Psychology, Universidad de Almería, Almería, Spain;Department of Psychology, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX, United States;Department of Social and Organizational Psychology, Faculty of Psychology, Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia, Madrid, Spain;Department of Social and Organizational Psychology, Faculty of Psychology, Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia, Madrid, Spain;ARTIS International, St. Michaels, MD, United States;Department of Theory and Analisys of Comunication, Faculty of Sciences of Information, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Madrid, Spain;InReach Global, Centre for Psycho-Social Research & Training, Colombo, Sri Lanka;

关键词: radicalization;    terrorism;    identity fusion;    collective identity;    social influence;   

DOI  :  10.3389/fpsyg.2020.614657

来源: Frontiers

【 摘 要 】

We distinguish two pathways people may follow when they join violent groups: compliance and internalization. Compliance occurs when individuals are coerced to join by powerful influence agents. Internalization occurs when individuals join due to a perceived convergence between the self and the group. We searched for evidence of each of these pathways in field investigations of former members of two renowned terrorist organizations: the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) (Study 1) and Islamist radical groups (Study 2). Results indicated that ex-fighters joined LTTE for reasons associated with both compliance and internalization but that ex-fighters joined Islamist radical groups primarily for reasons associated with internalization. When compliance occurred, it often took the form of coercion within LTTE but involved charismatic persuasion agents within Islamist groups. This evidence of systematic differences in the reasons why fighters enter violent groups suggests that strategies for preventing radicalization and fostering de-radicalization should be tailored to particular groups.

【 授权许可】

CC BY